Customer Reviews

Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories

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4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Let me say it straight out -- Tobias Wolff is an absolute genius in crafting stories. This collection -- ten absorbing new stories combined with twenty-one of his anthologized works -- is pitch perfect in every regard.

These are not stories that forces the reader to dig deep for symbolism and didacticism. Each is accessible, but each also presents a universal truth that somehow, someway, burrows its way straight into the reader's own mind and heart. This reader kept pausing and thinking, "But how did he KNOW that? How an he possibly be so empathetic and get it so darn RIGHT?"

There's the at-loose-ends professor with a one hopeful chance, who finally finds the courage to give back as much as is dished out to her. The hunters in the snow who stand up to a bully. The American in Rome who feels a strange connection with the gypsy who picked his pocket. A night in question, where filial connections are explored. A first love that never stops haunting the now successful man.

Many of these stories are ordinary occurrences that rise to the extraordinary. Many involve regular folks who gain the authenticity to truly become themselves...or to discover the meaning behind their lives and their actions. I know I will not soon forget many of these characters, who in ten or fifteen pages, solidly come to life.

For anyone who wants to explore the human condition -- our cowardice, our selfishness, our dreams, our connectiveness -- I urge you to read Tobias Wolff. He's the real thing.

Tobias Wolff's latest collection of short stories, written over a period of thirty years, contains twenty-one previously published in book form with ten new stories added. The characters and situations are diverse although a good many stories take place in the snow; as one character says, however-- and I tend to agree with him-- snow is much overrated. I also agree with the writer Edward P. Jones whose definition of a good short story is one that "the world, for even one character, has shifted, whether to a large or a tiny degree." These stories (at least practically all of them) would interest Mr. Jones. In some of them the shift is enormous: a bank customer is shot in the head by a robber; one hunter shoots a friend, a fellow hunter; a young man in an act of definace paints a white picket fence red; a professor, having learned that she has been duped into interviewing for a teaching position that the search committee has already decided on, veers from her canned lecture on the Marshall Plan into an extemporaneous speech about the barbarism of the Iroquois. In others the world moves inside the head of the character. In "Awaiting Orders" a sergeant realizes that he is ashamed to take a woman and her child home with him, not because he has a male lover, but because she will see that he doesn't care for the lover as much as the lover cares for him. "What he feared, what he could not allow, was for her to see how Dixon [his lover] looked at him, and then to see that he coud not give back what he received. That things between them were unequal, and himself unloving." A man at the death watch for his mother no longer knows how to be a son but can be a father.

Mr. Wolff writes about relationships, the "shakiness" of families, young love, betrayal, characters who are down and out although they seldom whine-- in a word often decent people. One of my favorite stories is "The Night in Question," a beautiful moving account of a brother and sister who had an abusive father. The siblings are worlds apart because the brother has gone off the deep end with religion but still so close because of their love for each other. It bears reading again and again.

Wolff's seamless transparent prose is for the most part free of metaphor although older people have "wintry smiles" and a "wide woman" on a bus has flesh under her arms that "swings like hammocks." These stories are not for the lazy reader for they are as subtle and complex as anything Henry James ever wrote although Mr. Wolff certainly is a master of the short story himself.

"I think that this is a great set of stories and it gives me - from my European point-of-view - a fascinating insight view into the lives of more or less `ordinary' American citizens. And that in a very unorthodox, `alert" style.

So every time I end one of the brilliant stories in this collection I think: "How does Mr Wolff do it, how can he make such masterly stories with the help of such a clean-cut choice of words and terms? And conversations and settings?

But then I give it up; Tim O'Brien is right: this phenomenon cannot be explained. And I? I simply go on reading these great stories."

Short stories are what I love, so I bought Tobias Wolff's latest collection and read it from cover to cover. (The ragged paper edging and beautiful typeface are something a booklover like myself notices). What I found in the "Note From the Author" at the front of the book surprised me.

Never before have I come across a prominent writer who was publishing new stories and simultaneously re-editing previously published works. Revising already published work struck me as going overboard on perfectionism, and I questioned the appropriateness of tampering with what was already printed for a wide audience.

Personally, I appreciate an artist's early works (with whatever "flaws"). They serve a valuable function by allowing new writers and serious readers the opportunity to follow the growth of a favorite writer. Original works are part of the process of publishing and they should be preserved rather than altered in light of the writer's heightened skills. For most readers this probably makes no difference, but personally, I hope it doesn't become common practice. Sharing that information at the opening of this volume demonstates both respect for readers and admirable ethics.

Wolff has the uncanny ability to slip inside the heads of his characters and weave dialogue, traits, and surroundings that feels so authentic that the reader accepts his fictional beings as real people. The wide range of settings and situations from which his stories spring distinguishes him among modern short story writers. In addition, the sensitivity with which he draws both male and female characters is unique. It is remarkable how he intuits female emotional triggers so accurately. Few writers can portray unsympathetic individuals making poor choices and still keep the reader invested in the outcome like this author does. Proof of Wolff's special talent is that even when protagonists cause heartbreak and disappointment they continue to elicit empathy from the reader. His characters frequently do unexpected things.

"Firelight", "Smorgasbord" and "Powder" are among my favorite stories. Vague endings appear frequently in Wolff's work, particularly in the newer pieces, which I found unsettling. Tobias Wolff is a writer's writer so if you have not read his work yet, definitely put it on your to-do list.

Before I join the chorus of laudatory reviews, I want to register some reservations.
Whenever I read a story or a novel, I ask myself: would I want to read it again - right now? Sometime soon? Ever?
In this collection there weren't many that met this (admittedly very subjective) criterion. Whether that has to do with the content of the stories or the author's narrative technique, I am not quite sure. I bought the book when it first came out and put it aside after reading the first two stories. I readily concede that I dislike stories about bitchy colleagues in the groves of academe, and I loathe voyeuristic stuff in the manner of Raymond Carver; so "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs" and "Next Door" failed to pull me in.

Recently I picked up the book again and this time started near the end, with the New Stories. I liked "Deposition" and "The Benefit of the Doubt", and then I got deeper into the material, acknowledging belatedly that some of the copious praise I had heard was justified. I recognized that the very triviality that originally turned me off lends authenticity to the stories, and that I was in the presence of a highly skilled storyteller.

Still, I think that Wolff, like a novelist manqué, has a tendency to cram too much biographical background information into his stories; many of them probably would have benefited from more severe editing, especially the older ones.
Sometimes the point of view fluctuates between omniscient and first person narrative (cf. "the Liar"). This may be a deliberate device, in the postmodern manner, to demonstrate the close relationship between memory and imagination. A penchant for minute detail recalls the French Nouveau Roman. And a story like "Bullet in the Brain", while featuring one of my least favorite stock characters, the supercilious critic, taps into neurobiological research in a manner that takes your breath away.
I miss a robust sense of place: cities like Spokane or Albany are mentioned, but many of the stories are free-floating, not anchored in any recognizable locale. I believe that most of us structure our memories around stories where time and place are essential ingredients.

The stories are open-ended, as any good short story should be, allowing the reader to give free rein to his imagination. There is usually an ironic twist at the end - sometimes hilarious, sometimes bitter or unsettling (or any mixture of these elements). But few of them really grabbed me the way William Trevor's stories do - to name just one of the great masters.

I am aware that some readers will relish the very same stories that I find repellent. So, while I agree with those who pronounce Wolff "one of the best", I am not ready to elevate him to the pantheon of immortals.

Perhaps in the tradition of Raymond Carver's decision to compile in 'peak-career' his 'greatest hits' compilation of short stories in Where Im Calling From, out comes Tobias Wolff with this fantastic book.

These stories are short-short (more in the length tradition of Barthelme than Carver), but you will be amazed on the clarity, load of the subject, conciseness, and impact. The tone and style can shift between stories as well--humurous to morose, declarative to imperative, relaxed to upfront, 'heavy' themes to moderate/light--perhaps testifying to how careful Wolff plans, writes, edit, and re-edit his stories before publishing. The craftiness or perhaps sheer natural talent of Tobias Wolff in working with shorts is astounding. He makes it look easy.

Read BULLET IN THE BRAIN first, then follow with Hunters in the Snow and The Liar.; you'll immediately be paid back of the book's total price.

Tobias Wolff is among the better storytellers of our time... Many classic stories are included here, so it's a great primer for newcomers. It also includes ten new stories, several of which rank among his best, others that are still great... Far outshines other books I've read this year... Wolff is a writer who never forgets that a story needs to have a story. So many modern collections meander and try to impress with lingual fireworks that fizzle; Wolff gives you a hearty meal to sink your teeth into.

Tobias Wolff's newest work is a grand collection of some of his greatest and most unforgettable stories as well as ten new stories that are sure to gain the same status. The first part of the collection, "Selected Stories", contains twenty-one stories gathered from the author's previous short story collections, The Night in Question, Back in the World and In the Garden of North American Martyrs.

These stories touch on a range of subjects, from an aging woman's distaste for saying only what people want her to say in "In the Garden of North American Martyrs", to a child's compulsive need to lie even though he sees what it is doing to his worried mother in "The Liar", to a boy bonding with his father in "Powder". The first section also includes some of Mr. Wolff's widely-studied and anthologized stories such as "Hunters in the Snow" and, perhaps his most well-known story, "Bullet in the Brain".

The entire collection is an eye-opening, thought-provoking and exciting journey for new fans of Mr. Wolff's work, perhaps having read his amazing novel, Old School, or one of his memoirs, In Pharaoh's Army or This Boy's Life, but not his short stories. His new stories; however, are a great draw for readers who already have a strong appreciation for Wolff's works of short fiction.

These new stories include a young man's head-on collision with the experience of the outside world when he works as a wandering farm hand in "That Room", a poignant examination of a man's treatment and appreciation of his late wife through canine eyes in "Her Dog" and the perennial favorite subject of Vietnam veteran Wolff's; a soldier's life with a twist, in "Awaiting Orders".

The growth that any great writer goes through over the course of a twenty-seven year career is shown beautifully throughout this collection. Whether you are a long-time fan of Wolff or a reader who just picks up this book thinking it an interesting read, you are sure not to be disappointed in the powerful stories and complex characters throughout this book that definitely belongs on the list of the best books of 2008.


This and other reviews of literary fiction can be found at [...] All reviews are simultaneously published on Amazon.com.

It's hard to find a writer who strives to write straight ahead stories that have such simplicity and force. This is a great retrospective coupled with a lot of new stories.

I'm just going to save everyone a lot of trouble: from now on, I myself will be the "American Chekhov." I'm doing this out of the kindness of my heart, mind you, so that great and incredibly interesting writers like Tobias Wolff don't get straightjacketed by the title anymore.

Not that I begrudge Wolff the title. With the death (God will have some fun with her) of Grace Paley, who deserves that title more? And yet the obvious question it hides -- and has always hidden -- is this: who is the American Tobias Wolff?

With the arrival of New and Selected Stories, we've got a pretty good idea. Wolff is an improviser, a trickster, a literary repertory theater, and, probably, least interestingly, one of our greatest writers of short fiction.

Like the last Chekhov title-holder (before me), Wolf is sometimes more admired than read. He's at the point in his life when the staffers at the New Yorker check each other like hockey players to answer his calls, and, as director of the Stegner Fellowship at Stanford, every junior Chekhov in the republic would do well to include his name in the acknowledgements page. And yet here's what he is above and before all of those other things:

A guy who's freaking besotted by his own ability to tell the stories of our nation. While Paley pretty much confined herself to the Upper West Side (which was more than enough world for her), Wolff's reach is dizzying. Reading the book, I got so used to not being able to guess where the next story would take me. Like a true American (not one of those Mayflower wannabes) Wolf sees class as an imaginative construction rather than a function of birth or money. In fact, almost anything that matters to the characters of these stories is a product of their capacity to create themselves.

One of Wolff's nearly iconic stories -- Bullet in the Brain -- about a cranky English professor and book reviewer seems to delight in a man who constructs himself as a professional hater of the inferior productions of the mind. What he can't see, of course, is that the most inferior production is his own self, and when this intellectual habit literally gets him killed, and the bullet passes through his brain waking up the most significant memories of his lifetime, what's left is only a memory of childhood in which he took a moment to admire the odd speech of another sandlot baseball player.

As one of the stories that might vault him into the pantheon quickiest, Bullet in the Brain leaves us with the sense of a grand whimsey. Chekhov had that, too, but in Wolff (and I'm sure this is true of Chekhov and Paley, too) you really get to see the fun of the whole project. As I worry sometimes that fiction has been run over by that juggernaut of digital storytelling, I have to recognize that it isn't fiction that's killing fiction but the ways we talk about fiction that kill fiction. What we have in Wolff is an insanely interesting writer who is capable of offering the same kinds of delight as a great quirky television show and yet leave us with the feeling that we have read something that has somehow enobled our spirits the way that, apparently, only text has the capacity to accomplish.

And that's why I'm falling on the literary hand grenade of all that esteem and honor and non-reading reverence. Yes, that's right: give me the grant money and the awards and the hushed excitement when I walk into a cocktail party in some university town where they know the distinctions between different types of lettuce but maybe not whether Bruce Willis's last Die Hard movie was any good. I'll take the heat. I'll endure the bland trouble of literary fame so that Tobias Wolff can be what he really is: the most entertaining and exciting writer of short fiction that we're so lucky to have.